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Friday, July 29, 2005

Ind. Decisions - Court nixes hospital stay for juveniles

"Court nixes hospital stay" is the headline today to a brief AP story carried in the Indianapolis Star:

A St. Joseph County court overstepped its bounds when it ordered Larue D. Carter Memorial Hospital in Indianapolis, a state mental hospital, to accept three juveniles in need of psychiatric care, the Indiana Court of Appeals has ruled.

And one member of the three-judge panel found that state resources were "woefully inadequate" to help troubled youths.

The appeal by the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration's Department of Mental Health and Addiction stemmed from three cases in St. Joseph County Probate Court, which also handles juvenile proceedings.

The three young people -- ages 10, 12 and 16 -- underwent repeated short-term stays in private mental health centers and juvenile detention after they were adjudged delinquent for offenses that would be felonies if committed by adults, according to court records.

The decision was IN THE MATTERS OF R.L.H., A.D., and C.L.B., each child alleged to be a delinquent child, dated 7/26/05. Judge Crone wrote the opinion, Judge Darden concurred, and Judge Mathias concurred with opinion, which I quote here in full:
I write to emphasize the understandable exasperation every trial judge feels when confronted with a wait of several months to admit a juvenile in desperate need of psychiatric services to Larue D. Carter Hospital. Insult is added to this injury when, at the end of that wait, a Carter representative informs the court that no bed is yet available.

The trial judge’s experience in this case is repeated on an almost daily basis in a courtroom somewhere in Indiana. It is an extremely sad reminder of the real, human cost of prioritization of limited budget resources.

Larue D. Carter Hospital is one of only three state hospitals able to meet the psychiatric needs of children less than 13 years of age and adolescents aged 13 to 18, whose families cannot afford private hospitalization. The other two state hospitals are the Richmond State Hospital and the Evansville Psychiatric Children’s Center. Carter has 42 beds available to children and adolescents. Richmond has 20 beds, available only to male adolescents. Evansville has 28 beds available only to children. Between these three hospitals, only 90 beds are available to serve the uninsured and indigent psychiatric needs of the more than 1,000,000 juveniles in Indiana. It doesn’t require higher math or an expert’s training to know that these resources are woefully inadequate to the task.

So, the trial judge in this case did what Indiana’s trial judges are often called upon to do: attempt to meet critical human needs by stretching resources, cajoling providers and making referrals to less-than-optimal, temporary alternatives, all while they wait for a bed to open for a hurting child. Against this background, the trial judge’s actions were understandable but not within his jurisdiction.

The Court of Appeals decision distinguishes last year's ruling by the Indiana Supreme Court, In the Matter of K.G., D.G. D.C.B. and J.J.S. (5/20/04 IndSCt) (discussed in this ILB 6/2/04 entry, headed "Recent Indiana Supreme Court ruling has child welfare officials scrambling"), which reversed a ruling of then-Marion County juvenile court judge James W. Payne (now heading the new Indiana Department of Child Services -- see ILB entries on the appointment, from early December, 2004, here and here).

Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 29, 2005 06:38 PM
Posted to Ind. App.Ct. Decisions